It's Gotta Be Good
by prettycastiel
Summary: A criminal AU from Clint's perspective. in which a lot of stuff goes wrong and three guys try to handle it all. rated T for strong language. TW: violence
1. In the Seconds of Running

"**In The Seconds Of Running"**

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**"Milk, milk, milk, where is the fucking milk?"** Clint is humming his self composed song under his breath while he is strolling through the empty lane of an equally empty supermarket. There is fucking no one there, It's as if the freaking Zombie apocalypse came and went and left Clint as lone surviving soul on the face of this planet.

It is that he was greeted by a bored looking girl behind the counter when he had entered this place, otherwise he would have believed his own stupid theory. Not that he cared, he was here just to do some shopping, just to get some beer. You can never have enough of that, and the milk would eventually come along his path.

Clint takes another look in his shopping basket and a smirk forms on his tired face. It is filled with energy-drink and Poptards, lollypops and beer. basically all he really needs to survive an apocalypse. Zombie or not.

If only he could just finish this shopping and get home, drink beer and watch a game. He would have had nothing to worry about. The only problem is that he can't go home, not since those bastards of cops invaded his hide-out.

That's why he is here, just after eleven at night, buying new food supplies. With outside, waiting in a car that isn't really theirs, his mates Bruce and Tony, or, as the underworld liked to call them, "the hulk" (caused by his anger management issues and the way he can freak out if you do something he doesn't categorize as right, really nice guy though, smart) and "the iron man" (they call him that, because he likes to make his robots do all the hard work for him, including an occasional fight, but he is just genuinely a smart guy, bit weird, but smart nonetheless). Clint is the one out shopping, because he is the one who thought it necessary to even do so.

The closer Clint gets to the exit of the supermarket, the more he is wishing that there actually had been a Zombie apocalypse. That would have meant that the girl at the counter had been dead, and that would result in him not having to take this risk.

He stands still in the lane closest to the right side of the store. Taking in as much as he can from a good distance from the counter. While walking through the shop he noticed every little thing about the place. And he is trying to find out more to fill the last holes in his plan.

The only available exit is the one he came in through, the main entrance. There technically are two other exits but one of them is a fire escape and the other is in the back. Which happens to be the only place, besides where counter girl is seated, where there are people. Whom Clint assumes to be the manager and a shop assistant are busy stocking up on coffee in the back, and he doesn't want to risk them seeing him. The car outside is parked in one of the many blind-spots of the place, and he made sure before entering, that his face nor hands were visible on the security camera's. He had opened the door with his elbow, had carried his basket with the end of his sleeve and had been wearing his beanie since he got out of the car.

He is invisible to both the cameras and the counter girl at this moment and thus had time to look around for a bit, to think about what the actual hell he was doing anyway. His first plan had been simply to distract the girl and walk out with his stuff. But the girl hadn't even glanced up when he had dropped a bottle of wine a few minutes earlier, so that plan was a no-go.

The girl hadn't seen his face and had been listening music the whole time he had been here. So there was a good chance that she didn't even know he was here, which made it even more clear to Clint that he didn't have to harm her to get this over with.

A TL light behind Clint protests against its job, and catches Clint's attention. He turns around to find the cooling section of the shop, partly filled with bottles of milk. He grins to himself, the world really was on his side tonight. Well, apart from the cops, but really, that had just been a bump in the road, right? He really hopes that is true, because if it wasn't, he could get a lot more attention on his way out then he needs.

His new plan is a lot riskier than his first, and he isn't exactly sure about it, but it's the best he has, and he has all the means to do it.

Clint is known in the underworld, as "Hawkeye". Some say it is because of his ability to completely see, correctly interpret, and accurately predict a situation from an enormous distance. Others say it's because of his impressive marksman skills and his silent manner of attacking. Whatever the real reason might be, Clint liked his nickname, and had adopted it as his personal trademark as soon as he could. At the scene of big crimes, he'd sometimes leave behind a feather, just as a way to show off.

This wasn't a big crime, though, and leaving a feather behind would not only be stupid but also an absolute waist of the feather. Because those feathers were beautiful, and by the way, he doesn't have any of them on him now anyways, because they are safe at… shit, FUCK, he left the stupid feathers at the stupid by cops invaded house. Well, fuck. That literally ruined any chances they had left of ever returning there.

The last pieces of his escape puzzle are falling into place, and he slowly starts to see the bigger picture. This is how it will go down.

He was going to walk towards the counter where the girl was seated, making sure she still wouldn't see his face. He'd turn his back towards her and would notify the girl of the still body lying at the end of the lane she had vision on, she'd call her superiors from the back and would get up to check on the victim. She and her manager would arrive at the body at around the same time. In that short amount of space, Clint would have more than enough time to find and prepare the button that disabled the alarm at the door. Making sure that it wouldn't trigger when he was walking out with not only his shopping basket, but the money from the register, four packs of cigarettes and all the chewing-gum he could get his hands on. Easypeasy.

Everything goes according to plan. He also finds out that the girl is named Emma. She takes a little longer to jump into action then he had expected her to, but she finally does what she is supposed to do and doesn't pay any more attention to him than the soft **"sorry"** she stammers when she walks past him. The manager takes just as long so that leaves him with a little more time then he had expected, giving him the space to actually choose his chewing-gum before taking it, and enabling him to check his button heck twice.

Leaving this mini-robbery more successful than any of them had expected, he walks out of the automatic doors. As soon as he has eye contact with Tony, he salutes his mate in the car, and Tony starts the engine. He is greeted by a broad smile when he opens the back to put the groceries in. **"Did you get it, Clint?"** Clint smiles, **"Of course I did, sweetie pie, didn't you believe I would?"** Bruce leans over towards him and aggressively grabs the chewing-gum from the pockets of his hoodie. **"Don't push it, Clinton."** He says, clearly trying to sound as if he's a threat, but when Clint looks him into the eyes and claws at him teasingly, breathing out a half-tried **"Grawrrrr"**, he just rolls his eyes and gets back to the front of the car.

Tony is behind the wheel, and as soon as Clint closes the door, he drives away. Now that Bruce also has his attention on the road, he too can start asking questions. **"I take it you got the milk and my cigarettes?" "Right here with me, Tony, and I even got you some energy drink, to make up for your lack of caffeine now that we don't have access to our lovely coffee machine."** He knew he had done Tony a favour by taking those, so he didn't mind when Tony ignored it and went on with his interrogation. **"So, how'd it go?" **

"**Flawless, as usual. That's what you get when you put the best of the best in the field," **he grinned and found eye contact, first with Bruce and only seconds later with Tony, through the reverse mirror. **"me!"**. He wasn't gonna tell them that it had been a bit trickier than expected. You see, he had known these guys for over half of his miserable life, and he trusted them with it. But he also knew that they wouldn't hesitate to lose him, if they ever got even the faintest of indications that he was turning against them. And he knew that they would at least keep a closer eye on him if they found out he had almost screwed up.

"**Shut up, Barton."** It sounds harsh, but Clint can see Tony's shoulders move a little under his silent laughter. **"what else did you get? Nothing too expensive I hope, we wouldn't want them finding out that we actually stole something."** Tony emphasizes the word stole, to make it sound like a joke, but again, Clint knows better than that. **"Um, let's see, I got.., some more beer, your energy, the milk, Bruce's gum, the cigarettes and lots and lots of lollypops."**

Clint knew that the only reason Tony didn't face palm himself was that he was supposed to be steering and watching the road. And he grinned when Bruce turned around with a sigh to face Clint and ask him a question. **"So? How did you do it this time?"** Clint was a bit put off by that question but answered nonetheless. **"Long story short? I faked a dead body with a bottle of wine, dog food bags, a clown costume and a giant box of clay."** A cheeky grin spread across both Bruce's and Clint's face. **"Nice job, Clint."** Bruce seems genuinely proud of him, which makes sense provided that he had made up that tactic a few years ago.

The car was driving at full speed down an almost empty highway, but he didn't mind the fact that they were breaking more rules than strictly necessary. They had never have to flee from a home before, not without someone making a stupid mistake, something that person would regret doing not long after. And for as far as he knew, no one made a mistake large enough to get the cops to find them. There was something off about the whole situation, and he didn't like it. Yeah, they were good enough criminals to get through it, and find a new spot. But the fact that someone had found it useful, or, whatever, to blab to the cops? That just wasn't good, not at all. He is distracted when a bubble is popped in the front of the car. How appropriate.

His attention is directed at Bruce when he slowly starts to chew again. **"Hey, Clint?"** Bruce seems to consider asking the question before he does, **"the energy-drink, I get, but why the lollypops?"** Clint answers his question with an antisocial toothy smile **"'Cause I like," **he intercalates a short wanna-be-dramatic pause, then continues with a smile that is, if possible, broader then his former teeth-shower,** "to suck."**

Tony breaks into a shameless giggle and soon Bruce is laughing too. As if they aren't fugitives. It is comforting, and Clint lets the carelessness of it sink in before he goes back to checking if they are being followed. A job he spent most of the last two hours doing.

"**Hey, Sucker-bird!"** Clint chuckles a little at the nickname he gets. Then turns his attention to Tony's expression.

This wasn't good, this wasn't good at all.

He shifts his gaze from the worried and, strangely, scared embodiment of Tony to the mayhem in front of the car.

This was not just "not good", this was bad. No, this was worse.

"**I think we've got a problem." **Is the last thing he hears Tony say, before something in front of the car decides to blow up, and all goes black.

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**Authors note;**

I have yet to determine a direction in which this is gonna go, but i really enjoy playing with clints perspective, so I'll probably continue this one.  
but, as always, feel free to comment or add to favorites if you feel like it.  
and I hope to write to you soon.  
**cilia.**


	2. The Explosions Before Friendship

"**The Explosions Before Friendship"**

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Christ. Jesus fucking Christ that hurts.

He can't see a thing, everything is black, he is pretty sure his eyes work, but still he can't see a thing. He moves a hand towards his face and when it is about five centimeters away he can see it. Thank God, at least he can still see.

When his eyes get used to the dark, more and more of his surroundings become visible. He is still in the car. Thank Fuck. The darkness was caused by the smoke and the soot on the already darkened windows. He quickly checks the cars surroundings, it lies on its side. He can see Bruce lying unconscious on a silently moaning Tony, good, both still alive. That's, that's good.

He gets up, time to find out what ever the fuck caused this disaster. The door above him seems to be distorted, and it doesn't give in when he tries to push it open. Ok, well, he'll find out of this freaky situation from the inside. He climbs over to the front and, leaning on Bruce for support, wipes some of the root from the front window. It is dark outside but he can see shadows move around. His first instinct to call out to them is rapidly pushed aside by his common sense, they could be the enemy. Whatever enemy that might be, anyway.

He moves closer to Tony and, with one hand on his gun, frees him from Bruce's weight. **"Hey." **He whispers** "You alright?" **Tony shoots him a annoyed glance **"What do you think, dumbass? Our car has just been blown up and Bruce has his elbow pressed into my crotch." **He's fine, his sarcasm is the perfect sign of it. Clint shifts Bruce's weight and can hear Tony's sigh of relief. **"We've got to get to know what's going on here, Tony." **Tony shrugs, which looks kind of weird in his position. **"Yeah, but we gotta wake Bruce up first, 'cause we can't do nothing without him."**

Bruce finally wakes up, after being pushed and shoved around the car for over one, maybe two minutes, in Tony's arms. Tony, being the predictable person he is, greets him happily, **"Hey, sleepy-head. We thought you were dead, good thing you aren't though, 'cause there's a good chance we are going to be fighting for our lives in a minute." **Bruce, being the serious, to the point person _he_ is, answers accordingly, **"I am so not in the mood right now, Tony. Please, just buzz off."**

While Tony briefly informs Bruce of the little they know of their situation, Clint is keeping himself busy with searching for a way out. None of the usual doors will open, so he decides it's time to find a more improvised way out. Thankfully, he's got his gun, and he has enough vision on the inside of the car to find a weak spot in the roof.

The only downside is that he'll make a lot of noise, and, well, that will cause "the enemy" to hear them, and start paying attention. **"Tony?" **he asks, unsure of what to do,** "I can do this, I just have no idea what's outside…" **Bruce answers for Tony, who is busy binding a wound on Bruce's left arm with a piece of his t-shirt, muttering something about the poor quality of band-merchandise. **"I don't care, we can have them, just do it already!"**. Ok. It's a crazy plan. But, fuck it, whatever. Time to shine.

Clint blows five strategically placed holes through the roof. When he is done he stops to listen for a moment. No sounds. Weird, a moment ago he would have sworn he heard voices. That could mean two things. One, the voices were from people passing by, and he scared them off with his gunshots. Or two, and that was the option he didn't only find more plausible, but also much more dangerous, there were people outside waiting, expecting them to come out. This could go downhill really fast.

One look at both Tony and Bruce and they were next to him. They had their weapons, in Tony's case guns, and in Bruce's case his fists, ready to attack whatever lay in front of them. Clint checked his back, his arrows were there still with him, as soon as his gun was out of ammo, he could switch without losing a second. Good. Let's do this.

A nod, that's all he needs, and he gets it not long after the voices have started to talk again. He takes a step back and finds a place on the door above them to hold onto. He grabs it and at the same time swings his feet in front of a little luck… He flies right through the roof, as if it's nothing.

He lands on his feet and can hear Tony and Bruce sprint out of the car right behind him. He is about to get his gun out of his holster to kill some sons of bitches when something holds him back. There is no sound of fighting. Neither the "enemy" nor Bruce or Tony has made an action. He slowly and carefully opens his eyes, which he had still closed in protection of the sudden wave of street light he was expecting.

There are two people standing there, a short-ish, redheaded woman, and a longer, well-build, blond guy. The chick is looking towards him and his mates as if they are bodybuilders walking out of a beauty parlor. And the guy just looks shocked. It's sort of funny really. And it distracts from the awkward situation, in which they are both unsure whether to shoot or hold fire.

"**You're not from Fury's gang." **The woman says, more to herself than to any of the others. She takes a few steps towards them, guns still raised out of suspicion, and takes the sight Bruce, Clint and Tony in. One by one, slowly, careful not to miss any signs of them being the bad guys. "**There is no-one left in the car, right?"** she asks, nodding towards the wrecked van. **"Neh, just our groceries"** Tony answers nonchalantly, but Clint knows he is paying perfect attention to every single thing that moves, and has a plan ready for every possible outcome of this. That reassures him a bit, because his plans didn't get much further then "make sure everything goes right".

"**Good,"** she says, smiling wryly. The woman points the gun in her left hand at the van, **"Get away"** she hisses. Tony, Bruce and Clint get the hint, they run away from the van as fast and as far as they dare with the woman and the man still having them at gunpoint. They've barely made it to where the man is standing when they hear a shot being fired, Immediately followed by a loud explosion. The sound of a van being blown to pieces.

Clint is breathing heavily, not out of exhaustion, but plainly because of the shock of being almost-blown-to-pieces twice on the same day. He smiles crazily when he feels a lollipop-stick prodding into his thigh. They didn't destroy all his lollipops! Directly after thinking this, a frown clouds his face. They did blow up his third best bow, the directions to the new hide-out, his favorite vest, and worst of all, the beer. He pouts, they didn't have to blow the car up, that was, frankly, just really mean. The expression on both Bruce's and Tony's face tells him that they are experiencing the same sort of realizations.

He looks around him, they are surrounded by the man and woman, one on each side of them, ready to shoot when they try something stupid.** "Who are you three?" **the unknown women says, waving with her gun in a vague motion to sign for them to answer quickly, but not losing them as targets for even a split second.

"**Would you like us to just answer, or is there some rule we have to follow, because otherwise you'll shoot us?"** Tony pauses for a second after saying that, and when the only reaction he gets is a deadly look from the women and an eye-roll from the guy, he continues. **"Look, guys, guy and girl, sorry, I'm in full support of feminism here. Look, We, me and my friends, we just put our guns down, we're no longer a threat, so could you two just be nice gunman, -man and -woman, sorry. And stop pointing those things at us?"**

He spits the word things out as if it's a brussel sprout, and smiles his most charming of smiles afterwards. But neither of the two lower their gun, the expression on the guys face softens, though, and Clint notices. He sees it as a good sign, they are not going to kill them, not without giving them a chance to explain why they're here. **"Who are you three?"** she says it more compelling, with more rigor and with far less patience. It sends shivers down Clint's spine, he decides to answer, before things get out of control. **"They call me "Hawkeye", and those are my mates**," He point slowly, without making a move towards the arrows on his back, first at Bruce, **"they call him "The Hulk"."** and then at Tony. **"And we call him "The Iron Man"."**

Something shifts in the expression of the woman, it is almost invisible, and Clint would have missed it if it wasn't for her lowering her gun simultaneously. The man looks at her, he seems startled, just a tiny bit, and just for a short moment, then he gets himself together again. He takes the lead, he does a few steps forward, and then there magically appears a smile on his face. **"You are block one of "The Nemesis"."** He sounds confident, he is putting it as a fact. But Tony isn't prepared to give in that easily. **"We might be, we might not be. The important part is, who are you?"**

The man drops his smile, he is standing at a safe distance of the three, his gun is pocketed in his holster and both his hands are visible, nevertheless he isn't of guard, he is playing it safe. **"I'm "Captain America", and that dame there,"** he nods towards the unknown female, **"that's "The Black Widow". We are from the third block of "The Nemesis", and we were on a mission to take out one of Fury's patrol cars surrounding our headquarters." **The captain says it tightly, there is no doubt that he's an ex-military man, but what is one of those doing with "The Nemesis"?

"**We heard that you were looking for a new hide-out since the big bust yesterday, but if we had known you were coming this way, we would have-"** he stops himself mid-sentence when The Widow whispers something by his ear. Clint can see Tony raise his eyebrow, there is clearly something that bothers him in the whole situation. **"You have a point."** He says it quietly to The Widow, and she might have, but since Clint didn't hear anything of what she said, she could just as well have none. **"I'm sorry, a moment, please."** It's directed at him and his mates. **"Yeah, no problem, we've got loads, it's not like we can go anywhere anytime soon." **Bruce answers annoyed, and why wouldn't he be? They blew up his chewing-gum.

There is a short conversation between the man and the woman before they turn back towards him and his two compagnions, then the woman takes the forehand in the conversation **"I'm sorry about blowing up your car, but it was necessary, we had to make sure you did not have any Fury members hidden in the van."** The woman speaks with a slight rolling R, pronouncing the words just a little bit different from the typical American. It's not something a normal civilian would hear, but Clint couldn't really be considered a normal civilian, so yes, he noticed it.

The Captain and The Widow recommence their discussion in hushed voices, causing Clint, Bruce and Tony get some time to catch up on the whole situation. Neither Clint nor Tony knew about the other blocks of "The Nemesis", but Bruce read the code names of the occupiers of the other blocks. And thanks to his perfect recollection, they do now not only know that these are indeed "Captain America" and "The Black Widow" from the third block, but also that there is supposed to be another team member. "Thor".

"**We have decided that, since we blew up your car, and you have no other means of transportation at hand, you can stay in one of our places." **Cap probably thinks he's being a hero for offering this, but fuck him, it not safe, or maybe it is, but he doesn't trust it. Never trust someone you've met when they're trying to blow you up. That should be his life philosophy, now that he thinks about it, it happened before.

Tony seems to be OK with the idea though, and Bruce doesn't really care as long as he can get some new chewing-gum. Big child that he is. **"Well, I don't care what you guys think, I don't think we should do it." "Clint, they are right, we don't have any of our stuff on us, we should go with them, get new stuff from the storage and then get back going." "What if they turn out to be the enemy?"** he's not going to give in easily. **"We checked who they are, didn't we? They check out, there is nothing to worry about." "I don't trust 'em"** Clint pouts, he acts like he's still against it, but Tony has a point. **"You'll have to."** Bruce says, and that ends the conversation. It is decided, there going with The Captain and The Widow.

Clint can't help but sulk all the way to block three's headquarter. There is nothing to like about the situation. It's suspicious in all sorts of ways, the fact that they couldn't spot the difference between a "Fury-" and a normal van, the fact that they are from "The Nemesis", who aren't exactly known for their loyalty to towards one another, and most importantly, the fact that they are missing this "Thor" person. Absolutely nothing to like. Oh, and he's hungry too. Fuck this.

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**Authors note;**

Apparently I wrote a second chapter, that was fast. I am actually quite happy with how this turned out, and it is starting to take form too :D  
As always, feel free to comment and favorite if you feel like it, and have a good day.  
I hope to write to you soon.  
**Cilia**


End file.
